The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-03-22
The Story Of a Crime.

being convicted and punished for the
crimes of others? My answer was;
'Oa,y one. and the case is well worth
relating and reading.
began my detective career in Cana
da. aud N locality whore justice made
swift work of cyil-doers. had been
three years in the business. and had
dooc some very fair work, when very
sensational case was pat Into my hands
. Three miles from the city OF b
lived retired merchant named Graf
ton. He had fine mansion. elegant
grounds and plenty OF money. but his
wife was an insane patient in his own
house. and the only child, boy of 10,
was half idiot. Grafton was silent
partner in several concerns in the city,
bat spent four.ifthS of his time at
home. His wife was never seen, while
the young man we'd more like wild
animal than y human being. the greater
part of his time being spent in the
woods and fields. no matter what the
weather. Grafton had as coachmau,
gardener. and hired man German
abont 30 years of ago, who had been in
the country about five years when first
saw him at the house There were
three female servants. and one of them
was Il girl Is years OF age uamed Jcn-
mic Price, whose mother was very re-
spectacle widow in the city. This girl
was allowed to 20 home every other
Sais'iay and always rode in with
Fr,z. The coachmLn, as he went to
market ran home for an hour two. and
then returned b. the same vehicle. 1t
was reported that Fritz was in love
with and jealous of her. VIII Grafton,
the half idiot. had also takea II ''shine"
TO her. but his attentions wcro laughed
to sccrn by the pretty Jenuic and her
companions.
Now. then. in the afternoon OF q GER
tain iith of July several wcighty in
cidents occurred Fritz received a let
ter with foreign postmark, and was
. very much excited He was seen run
ming TO the barn with the letter IN his
hand, and. ten minutes later. was
heard shouting aud storming to himself
as If greatly cnragcd and excited. The
servants said to each other that he
must have received bad news, but none
Of them went to investigate aud con-
sole him.
II was Jcnnies day TO so home, but
Grafton was indisposed. Fritz sud
denly disappeared. and Will was not al
lowed to drive the horses. The girl,
Therefore, decided to set out on foot,
aud take her chances of getting lift
on the road. She left at o'clock in
the afternoon. and was to return 10y
ncou next day, Saturday night it was
discovered that Fritz had left the house
aud locality. not even asking for his
wages, while Will had set of on one of
his erratc excursions. having been seen
by the cook to pack up some pro-
Visions
jennie did not return on Sunday or
Mcnday or Tuesday. and Grafton
drove into town on Wednesday and
seat message to her house. She had
not been home, and an investigation re-
vealed the fact that none of her friends
had seen her for two weeks. 1t was a
case of mysterious disappearance. "
and came into it having little doubt
that il would turn out like the majority
of such cases. However. when | had
learned that the girl was steady as
well rs handsome. aud that everybody
had perfect confidence in her prIncl-
pies. 1 went TO the Grafton mansion to
bcgin my search there. This was on
Thu,aday morning. and it now seemed
pretty plain that some calamity had be-
fallen the girl. In an hour | learned
all the incidents related above. Graf
ton was very anxious in the matter,
telling me TO spare no expense, but
when | began to question VIII, the
young man turned on his heel and
walked of. as if deaf aud dumb. l.
however. had a chance TO look over
him for a couple of minutes, and L
made a note of several things. A but
ton had been torn of his coat with
such force as to tear the cloth. He
had two scratches on the right cheek
and one on the right hand. One fin
Ger of the left hand was tied up in a